Fax Machine/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby places a letter on his chest. The letter slides downward. Moby’s fax machine sends the letter to another fax machine. Tim retrieves and reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, why do fax machines have telephone numbers? From, Calliopi. Well, Calliopi, fax machines actually have a lot in common with telephones. The information from fax machines is sent over the same system of wires and switches that telephones use. An image shows telephone wires on telephone poles. TIM: In our telephone movie, you can see how when you make a telephone call, your signal is sent through a system of main and local exchanges, and then passed to the person you're calling. An animation shows the telephone wires going past houses to a local exchange. TIM: Each fax machine is like a telephone, but instead of a voice, it sends data. Side by side images show a moving sound wave and flowing data. TIM: Information on a piece of paper is fed into a fax machine on one end. Moby places a drawing of his face into a fax machine. TIM: This page passes over a row of light detectors called the Charge-Coupled Device, or CCD. An animation shows the page rolling over a CCD. TIM: The CCD scans the page and produces electrical signals of different voltages representing the light and dark parts of the page. These voltages represent black dots on a page that make up the text or image. An animation shows the black dots produced by the CCD's voltages. TIM: Once your page is scanned in, an analog/digital converter changes the electrical signals into digital bits. The animation shows the converter converting the signals to bits. TIM: Then a modem goes to work on the bits, translating them into a series of really short beeps. It's these beeps that are sent through the telephone lines. When the signal reaches the target fax machine, the whole process is reversed. An animation shows the modem, the target fax machine, and the telephone lines the beeps travel through. TIM: The digital beeps are decoded back into an analog signal, which is sent to the machine's printer. An image shows the drawing of Moby's face coming out of the target fax machine. TIM: Some fax machines have an ink jet or laser printer inside of them, and others use a thermal printer that prints on a roll of heat sensitive paper. Fax machines can send an entire page of words around the world in seconds. It would take you much longer to read that page to someone over the phone. A globe shows internationally connected fax machines. A Chinese food menu comes out of Tim’s fax machine. TIM: I guess this is Moby's way of telling me he's hungry. Moby sends Tim a fax that reads, I ordered you an egg roll. TIM: Egg rolls? I don't even like egg rolls. Moby sends Tim a fax that reads, too bad. Moby and Tim are standing by fax machines on opposite sides of the same desk. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts